Township wary on working with firm in pay-to-play violations case

HAMILTON — The engineering firm at the center of a pay-to-play violations case might not get any more work with Hamilton township after its latest contract got voted down by council.

The vote came after debate by several members of council over whether it was in the best interest of the township to save $10,000 or to not offer work to a firm allegedly involved in illegal activity. Council voted down the contract with a 2-2 vote.

After the vote came down, new Mayor Kelly Yaede said she shared some of the same concerns as the members of council who voted down the contract with Birdsall Services Group.

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“I don’t see anything on the horizon with Birdsall,” she said. “I’m uncomfortable proceeding to work with Birdsall until I receive further information about the case.”

Newly reinstated business administrator John Ricci said the township would work with the second bidder, Malcolm Pirnie, to see if it might offer a lower price to the township for the next council meeting, Dec. 18.

The contract, which is to analyze for potential needed repairs to the RBC building in the township’s Water and Pollution Control complex, is for $8,200. The other bid, from Malcolm Pirnie, came in at more than $18,000.

A call to Birdsall for comment was not immediately returned.

Council President Kevin Meara and Councilman Ed Gore voted against the measure, which prevented it from passing. Meara said he wanted to find out more information about the case before supporting further work with Birdsall.

“I think the story is still to be written on Birdsall. I don’t think we have all of the complete information,” he said. “But we have enough that my confidence has been shaken.”

Councilman Dennis Pone said, while he voted for the contract, he did consider the firm’s situation problematic.

“You’ve got a significantly lower price, but its with a company with some egg on its face. It was tough, it was one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever made, but in the end I’m beholden to the taxpayer,” he said. “I think it’s prudent to put them aside for now unless for some reason they have the only specialty on it.”

In addition, Ricci said Rich Watson, the director of the Department of Water and Pollution Control, worked at Birdsall before being hired by the township in 2008, the same year the man who plead guilty of the violations, Phil Angarone Jr., joined the firm. Watson worked as the vice president of environmental services at Birdsall.

Angarone, 40, of Hamilton, plead guilty Friday to funneling cash to campaigns through employees of his employer, Birdsall Services Group, according to a press release from the state attorney general’s office. The donations by employees were reimbursed by the company.

The release said that beginning in 2008, Angarone helped pass bundles of checks from his employer to various political campaigns. Each check would be less than the $300 required to be reported to the state Election Law Enforcement Commission.

In addition, he plead guilty to falsely reporting that the company had complied with the state’s pay-to-play law in annual disclosure forms required of companies that receive more than $50,000 in public contracts.

Ricci said the problem in dealing with Birdsall came in the nature of the alleged crime. The township relies on the disclosure forms that Angarone admitted forging to catch pay-to-play violations.

“It’s a glitch in the system,” he said. “When people are going to lie, it’s difficult to catch them.”